Most economy cars are now promising 100,000 mile warranties to guarantee that your car will be okay until then, but what happens after that? If you assume that you drive 10,000 miles a year (because the warranties are 100,000 miles or 10 years, whichever is less), then you have to ask yourself, can you depend on it after that? Even if it’s a luxury car, most car makers only warranty their cars until the breaking point, the breaking point where you really should buy a new car. Toyota is probably the only exception to that, offering a minimal mileage warranty with one of the best reputations in the business, a reputation of creating cars that literally last forever.
However, according to some research, mileage may not be as important as it used to be. Advances have made it easier to replace parts on newer cars, and when you replace certain parts, which are more affordable now than ever before, your car can be almost like new, at least on the inside. Vehicle life in most cars has been optimized, and while you still should worry about the brand, you have more options.
You get more informative car care, computerized systems, and frankly, more experienced and more educated mechanics with more options available to them too. Of course, there are abused cars, and you should know the history of the car you’re buying and preferably the driving habits of the previous owners (if they abused it, it really doesn’t matter as much what the mileage is). However, even things as basic as the paint are getting better.
Of course, makers recommend that you replace things like brake lines at 100,00 miles or sometimes sooner. However, there are other parts that are much more important. replacing something like the intake manifold can give your car completely new life. With replacements like this, there’s no reason to think that a good car couldn’t last 200,000 or 300,000 miles or even more in some cases.
The way I see it, it’s perfectly fine that they’re just not making cars like they used to.